MAXIMIZING PAPER FIBRE RECOVERY

USING PROPERTY CASCADE

ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE

MUHAMAD MOZA BIN MUHAMAD MOHTAR

BACHELOR OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PAHANG

MAXIMIZING PAPER FIBRE RECOVERY USING PROPERTY CASCADE

ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE

MUHAMAD MOZA BIN MUHAMAD MOHTAR

Report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree

of Bachelor of Chemical Engineering

Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PAHANG

JANUARY 2012

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ABSTRACT

Paper can be broadly classified into two types which high fibre paper and low fibre paper. In paper manufacturing, every stage of the paper production and consumption cycle is associated with a range of potential environmental problems. In addition, trees’ harvesting to produce the paper contribute to global warming. Therefore, one of possible ways to solve this problem is by recycling the papers. In fact, paper fibre recovery options can give great impact in reducing climate change, greenhouse gases, forest preservation, water and air pollution, waste management and energy problems. Hence, this research is to establish the minimum paper fibre targets using property cascade analysis (PCA) for a paper making process after looking at the possibility of using the available fibre sources within the process to meet its fibre demands. In order to find the maximum paper recovery, constructing the property cascade table from the limiting paper fibre data is needed. The property cascade analysis eliminates any tedious steps of graphical technique and quickly yield the exact utility targets and the pinch location in order to achieve the minimum fibre targets during network design. The fresh fibre target was estimated at 1464.27 tons per year which having a reduction of 43.68% of fresh fibre.

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ABSTRAK

Kertas secara umumnya boleh dikelaskan kepada dua jenis iaitu kertas serat yang tinggi dan kertas serat yang rendah. Dalam pembuatan kertas, setiap peringkat pengeluaran kertas dan kitaran penggunaan dikaitkan dengan pelbagai masalah alam sekitar. Di samping itu, penuaian pokok-pokok untuk menghasilkan kertas menyumbang kepada pemanasan global. Oleh itu, salah satu cara yang mungkin untuk menyelesaikan masalah ini ialah dengan mengitar semula kertas. Malah, pemulihan serat kertas boleh memberi impak yang besar dalam mengurangkan perubahan iklim, gas rumah hijau, pemeliharaan hutan, pencemaran air dan udara, pengurusan sisa dan masalah tenaga. Oleh itu, kajian ini adalah untuk mewujudkan sasaran serat kertas minimum dengan menggunakan analisis harta lata bagi proses membuat kertas selepas melihat kemungkinan menggunakan sumber-sumber serat yang ada dalam proses untuk memenuhi permintaan seratnya. Membina jadual harta lata dengan mengehadkan data serat kertas adalah diperlukan dalam usaha mencari pemulihan maksimum kertas. Analisis harta lata menghapuskan langkah-langkah yang rumit dalam teknik grafik dan menghasilkan sasaran utiliti yang tepat dan lokasi persentuhan untuk mencapai sasaran serat minimum dalam reka bentuk rangkaian. Sasaran serat segar dianggarkan pada 1464.27 tan setahun yang mempunyai pengurangan 43.68% serat segar.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION

STUDENT’S DECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

ABSTRAK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF SYMBOLS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Global Paper Consumption

1.2 Fibre for Paper Production

1.3 Problem Statement

1.4 Research Objectives

1.5 Scope of Study

1.6 Rationale & Significance of the Study

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 A Review on Cascade Analysis Technique

2.1.1 Water Cascade Analysis (WCA)

2.1.2 Property Cascade Analysis (PCA)

2.2 A Review on Paper Fibre Recovery

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Data Gathering

3.2 Targeting the Maximum Paper Recovery Using

Property Cascade Analysis (PCA)

3.2.1 Limiting paper data

3.2.2 Constructing Property Cascade Table (PCT)

3.3 Paper Fibre Network Design

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Data Gathering

4.2 Targeting the Maximum Paper Recovery Using

Property Cascade Analysis (PCA)

4.2.1 Interval Property Balance Table

4.2.2 Infeasible Property Cascade

4.2.3 Feasible Property Cascade

4.3 Paper Fibre Network Design

4.4 Percentage of Reduction

4.5 Advantages of PCA

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Conclusion

5.2 Recommendation

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Title Page

1.1

1.2

3.1

3.2

3.3

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9

4.10

4.11

4.12

4.13

4.14

4.15

4.16

World’s Top 30 Producing and Consuming Countries in 2000

Production of Waste Paper (thousand MT)

Weight and fibre fraction for each type of high fibre paper.

Weight and fibre fraction for each type of low fibre paper.

Water Cascade Table (WCT)

After paper degradation for high fibre paper.

After paper degradation for low fibre paper.

High fibre paper source

High fibre paper demand

Interval property balance table for high fibre paper

Infeasible property cascade for high fibre paper

Feasible property cascade for high fibre paper

Property Cascade Table for high fibre paper

Low fibre paper source

Low fibre paper demand

Interval property balance table for low fibre paper

Infeasible property cascade for low fibre paper

Feasible property cascade for low fibre paper

Property Cascade Table for low fibre paper

Calculation for Paper Fibre Network

Reduction percentage of fresh fibre

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

1.1

2.1

2.2

3.1

4.1

Global mean surface temperature

(a) Water cascade diagram with an assumed fresh water flow rate

of 0 kg/s ; (b) pure water cascade is used to check the feasibility of

the water cascade; (c) interval fresh water demand to determine

the fresh water amount needed in each purity interval.

Final configuration of papermaking process

Example of Network Allocation Diagram (NAD)

Maximum paper fibre recovery network

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LIST OF SYMBOLS

CO2 Carbon dioxide

O2 Oxygen

% Percentage

Ψk Water fraction, Operator

Δm Load

FFF Fresh fibre flowrate

FWF Waste fibre flowrate

Fj Demand flowrate

Fi Source flowrate

Fsum Net flowrate

FC Cumulative flowrate

SH Source of high fibre

SL Source of low fibre

DH Demand of high fibre

DL Demand of low fibre

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

NAD Network Allocation Diagram

PCA Property Cascade Analysis

PCT Property Cascade Table

PTA Problem Table Analysis

RVP Reid Vapour Pressure

SSAC Source and Sink Allocation Curve

UTM Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

WCA Water Cascade Analysis

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Global Paper Consumption

Nowadays, global paper consumption stills not less although new technology

and innovative always created. More than a decade ago, computers, e-mail, and the

Internet are being used as a means to reduce consumption of paper for printing and

writing, newsprint, packaging, and other uses. But today, more than ever, paper remains

the dominant and essential vehicle of modern communications. It is clearly shown that

paper still dominates the publishing industry such as newspaper, pamphlets, catalogues

and books. In Table 1.1 lists, the world’s top 30 producing and consuming countries in

2000. Meanwhile, the production of waste paper in Asia is shown in Table 1.2.

Table 1.1: World’s Top 30 Producing and Consuming Countries in 2000 (Pulp and

Paper International)

Country Metric Tons (000)

Country Metric Tons (000)

Country Metric Tons (000)

USA 85,495 USA 57,002 USA 92,355 Japan 31,828 Canada 26,411 China 36,277 China 30,900 China 17,150 Japan 31,736

Canada 20,689 Finland 11,910 Germany 19,112 Germany 18,182 Sweden 11,517 United Kingdom 12,684 Finland 13,509 Japan 11,399 France 11,376 Sweden 10,786 Brazil 7,463 Italy 10,942 France 9,991 Russia 5,814 Canada 7,476 Korea 9,308 Indonesia 4,089 Korea 7,385 Italy 9,000 Chile 2,841 Spain 6,922

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Table 1.2: Production of Waste Paper (thousand MT).

Actual Projection Country 1980 1994 2000 2005 2010 ASIA 12248 29173 40301 51602 64248

Bangladesh 0 0 52 69 93 China, People's Rep. of 1557 7581 13110 17002 21422

Cyprus 0 0 7 13 8 Hong Kong SAR, China 402 500 583 1100 1377

India 200 531 910 1198 1532 Indonesia 110 340 770 1505 1902

Iran, Islamic Republic 55 80 113 142 182 Iraq 0 0 7 8 9

Israel 45 113 94 126 222 Japan 8079 14841 20006 23963 28399 Jordan 4 12 30 48 67

Korea, DPR 0 0 32 35 40 Korea, REP 582 2850 1349 1881 2970

Kuwait 10 15 0 0 0 Lebanon 0 0 12 17 22 Macau 3 27 11 20 51

Malaysia 58 102 259 415 736 Nepal 0 0 5 6 7 Oman 0 0 4 4 4

Pakistan 26 55 138 162 240 Philippines 78 54 68 85 147

Saudi Arabia 0 75 0 6 4 Singapore 102 350 325 247 377 Sri Lanka 5 20 6 9 31

Syrian Arab Republic 0 0 10 19 25 Thailand 148 327 475 650 689 Turkey 163 56 193 324 453

United Arab Emirates 0 0 0 2 4 Viet Nam 0 147 41 61 82 Australia 553 980 1409 2143 2739

Fiji 0 0 2 4 5 New Zealand 68 117 280 337 404

Papua New Guinea 0 0 2 4 4

Source: FOA (2010)

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1.2 Fibre for Paper Production

Paper can be broadly classified into two types which high fibre paper and low

fibre paper. Usually, paper is used and selected base on the fibre quantities in that paper

and the usage of the paper. In paper manufacturing, every stage of the paper production

and consumption cycle is associated with a range of potential environmental problems.

Most wood fibre, from which pulp and paper are made, comes from natural forests

managed for timber production in North America, Europe, and Asia and from

plantations around the world. Only 2 percent of wood fibre comes from tropical

rainforests and virgin temperate hardwood forests (World Resources 2001). Pollution

could actually be worsened by a physical or economic scarcity of wood fibre in the

future, particularly in developing countries. Shortages could encourage greater use of

nonwood fibres for papermaking, like straw, bagasse, and bamboo. Nonwood fibres are

already a significant raw material in China and India, but only about 8 percent of the

world's papermaking capacity is nonwood based (FOA 2011).

1.3 Problem Statement

Global warming has been discussed over and over again. One of the factors of

global warming is the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) or the greenhouse gas in the air.

The high emissions of CO2 in the air are because of the pollution from power plants,

vehicles and harvesting the trees. Similarly with power plants, vehicles like cars, trucks,

and aeroplanes also emit the carbon into the air. The Earth is now receiving 30% more

solar radiation than it did 4.6 billion years ago. And there have always been cycles of

ice ages and warmer “interglacial” periods, depending on the Earth’s orbit, solar

radiation strength and changes in ocean currents (Eric, 2011). Figure 1.1 shows the

global mean surface temperature from year 1880 until 2000.

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Figure 1.1: Global mean surface temperature.

Source: Riebeek (2010)

Despite ups and downs from year to year, global average surface temperature is

rising. By the beginning of the 21st century, Earth’s temperature was roughly 0.5

degrees Celsius above the long-term (1951–1980) average.

In addition, trees’ harvesting to produce the paper also contribute to global

warming. During photosynthesis process, plants use the carbon dioxide (CO2) and

release the oxygen (O2). Decreasing of trees had caused more CO2 in the air. Therefore,

one of possible ways to solve this problem is by recycling the papers. In fact, paper

fibre recovery options can give great impact in reducing climate change, greenhouse

gases, forest preservation, water and air pollution, waste management and energy

problems. Hence, by recycling the fibre paper used, more earth problem can be solved.

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1.4 Research Objectives

There have two objectives in this research. The first objective is to establish the

minimum paper fibre targets using property cascade analysis for a paper making process

after looking at the possibility of using the available fibre sources within the process to

meet its fibre demands. Second objective is, to assess the application of the property

cascade analysis (PCA) method to an urban case study.

1.5 Scope of Study

In order to achieve the objective, three key tasks have been identified in this study.

The scope of this study includes:

a) Analyzing the potential of paper recovery

b) Establishing a new paper fibre targeting procedure for maximum paper fibre

recovery using cascade analysis technique

c) Applying the property cascade technique on an urban case study to illustrate the

effectiveness of the approach.

1.6 Rationale & Significance of the Study

This research is to improve the paper making process and the paper recycling.

By minimizing the paper fibre targets, we can recycle more papers and reducing the

fresh fibre in production.

The Property Cascade Analysis (PCA) is a new method has been developed to

establish the minimum fresh fibre and waste fibre targets for paper manufacturing. PCA

is a numerical technique that can quickly yield accurate targets for a maximum paper

fibre recovery network. The PCA eliminates any tedious steps of graphical technique

and quickly yield the exact utility targets and the pinch location in order to achieve the

minimum fibre targets during network design.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 A Review on Cascade Analysis Technique

2.1.1 Water Cascade Analysis (WCA)

Pinch analysis has been established as a systematic tool for optimal design of

resource utilization networks including heat, water, mass and gas systems. Application

of pinch analysis typically involves two key stages, resource targeting and design.

In Manan et. al. (2004) work, it method mostly same with this research which

they achieved the minimum water flow rate targets using the water cascade analysis

(WCA) technique. The first step in the WCA is to set up the interval water balance table

to determine the net water source or water demand at each purity level. Then, the next

step in the WCA is to establish the fresh water and waste water targets for the process.

It is to consider both the water flow rate balance and the concentration force (water

purity) hence the true minimum water target obtained. Figure 2.1 shown the water

cascade and pure water cascade diagram which it is to determine the interval fresh water

demand.

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Figure 2.1: (a) Water cascade diagram with an assumed fresh water flow rate of 0 kg/s ;

(b) pure water cascade is used to check the feasibility of the water cascade;

(c) interval fresh water demand to determine the fresh water amount needed

in each purity interval.

Source: Manan et. al. (2004)

2.1.2 Property Cascade Analysis (PCA)

Property surplus diagram and cascade analysis are used to determine the

minimum flowrates of resource in a property-based network. Property surplus diagram

is used to provide a basic framework to determine the target for minimum fresh usage,

maximum recycle and minimum waste discharge. The PCA technique is next

established to set the target and eliminate the iterative steps with graphical approach.

The key features of PCA are the material allocation target, along with the minimum

fresh and waste targets. Based on Foo et. al. (2006) work, the main property of solvent

that used in evaluating the reuse and recycle is the Reid Vapour Pressure (RVP). RVP is

important in characterising the volatility, makeup and regeneration of the solvent.

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Figure 2.2 shows the final configuration of the paper making process that was achieved

by Foo et. al. (2006).

Figure 2.2: Final configuration of the paper making process.

Source: Foo et. al. (2006)

2.2 A Review on Paper Fibre Recovery

Application of pinch analysis for paper recycling was first introduced by Foo et.

al. (2006). However, their method is only focused on recycling of rejected waste fibre

(termed as “paper broke”) from within a paper recycling plant to satisfy the relevant

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paper demand. The authors used a method called Property Cascade Analysis (PCA), a

numerical technique for setting the minimum paper requirements that uses flowrate and

reflectivity as the limiting data. Internal recycling of paper broke allows resource usage

to be maximized and fresh fibre consumption to be reduced.

Kit et. al. (2011) work, extends the concept of pinch analysis to determine how

post-consumer waste paper recycling can be maximized to produce various recycle

paper types. Post-consumer waste paper being discarded by consumers after being used

can come from various sources such as newspapers, magazine papers, office and

printing papers, and boxes. Each type of paper has different fibre quality. For example,

newspaper has the lowest fibre quality while white A4 office paper has the highest fibre

quality. Mixing all these different types of papers of different qualities to produce

recycle paper will reduce the purity of the highest quality fibre. Proper segregation and

mixing of paper types according to their fibre qualities can produce different recycle

paper qualities.

Their procedure includes targeting the minimum fresh fibre usage by

determining the maximum recycle fibre allocation using the Source and Sink Allocation

Curve (SSAC), and finally designing the maximum waste paper allocation network that

achieves the fibre targets using the Network Allocation Diagram (NAD). Their work

applies the generic graphical approach for simultaneous targeting and design of a

maximum paper recovery network to determine the maximum amount of recycled waste

paper that can be reused.

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CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Data Gathering

There will be two types of the paper, the high fibre papers like magazine and

manila card as well as the low fibre papers like tissue paper, newspaper, A4 paper and

corrugated box. The limiting data is consists the amount of fibre fraction for the

different types of waste paper and the amount of waste paper generated by students and

staff in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Then, the fibre fraction in different types of the paper wastes can be calculated by

equation 3.1:

퐹푖푏푟푒 푓푟푎푐푡푖표푛 =

The others data for this research are the amount of waste paper generated as a

source and amount of new paper produced as a demand. The weight and fibre fraction

for each type of paper (for an area of 300cm2) are listed in Table 3.1 and Table 3.2. The

amount of usable fibre contained in each type of paper can be extracted by calculating

the fibre fraction for each type of paper.

(3.1)

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Table 3.1: Weight and fibre fraction for each type of high fibre paper.

Type of paper Initial Weight (g/300cm2)

Final Weight (g/300cm2)

Fibre Fraction

Magazine 3.12 3.00 0.9615 Manila Card 6.94 6.60 0.9510

Source: Kit et. al. (2011)

Table 3.2: Weight and fibre fraction for each type of low fibre paper.

Type of paper Initial Weight (g/300cm2)

Final Weight (g/300cm2)

Fibre Fraction

Tissue Paper 0.93 0.92 0.9935 A4 Paper 2.63 2.47 0.9392

Corrugated Box 18.34 15.38 0.8387 Newspaper 1.50 1.49 0.9955

Source: Kit et. al. (2011)

A total of 200 surveys were distributed around UTM campus in order to estimate

the weekly amount of paper used. The types of paper in the questionnaire are typically

used by students and staff in UTM were averaged and scaled up according to the total

UTM population of 26 800 students and staff.

The total weight for each type of paper was calculated by using equation 3.2

based on the data that were collected. Then, that used as a source for each of paper.

푇표푡푎푙 푊푒푖푔ℎ푡 =퐼푛푖푡푖푎푙 푤푒푖푔ℎ푡(푔) × 퐴푟푒푎(푐푚 ) × 푛표. 표푓 푝푎푔푒푠 × 푃푎푝푒푟 퐴푚표푢푛푡(푝푒푟 푤푒푒푘) × 1푘푔 × 1푡표푛푠

300푐푚 × 1000푔× 1푦푒푎푟 × 1000푘푔

Compared to the original paper, the amount of fibre paper recycled as source was assumed to be degraded by 10%. The data is shows

in table 4.3 and 4.4 for high paper fibre; also table 4.9 and 4.10 for low paper fibre. Degradation can be happen when the paper undergoes

fibre processing steps which it can be include bleaching, washing, stirring, screening and flotation process to remove all contaminants.

3.2 Targeting the Maximum Paper Recovery Using Property Cascade Analysis (PCA)

In order to find the maximum paper fibre recovery, there have two steps in this calculation. Firstly is doing limiting paper data and

then constructing the property cascade table (PCT) from the data gathered.

3.2.1 Limiting paper data

Operator for paper is water fraction and it important as a data in this calculation since the water fraction of fresh fibre is zero. Water

fraction can be determined by using equation 3.3:

Water Fraction, Ψ = 1- Fibre Fraction

(3.3)

(3.2)

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Water fraction was used as operator compared to fibre fraction since in fresh

fibre, the water fraction is zero hence the water fraction is more suitable as an operator.

The fibre fraction of paper source was assumed to be 10% less than the fibre fraction of

paper demand due to degradation.

3.2.2 Constructing Property Cascade Table (PCT)

To construct property cascade table as the water cascade table in Table 3.3, a

few tables and calculation were needed after gathered limiting paper data. That can be

started by calculating interval property balance table, infeasible property cascade, and

feasible property cascade.

Table 3.3: Water Cascade Table (WCT)

Source: Manan et al. (2004)

3.3 Paper Fibre Network Design

PCT is constructed in order to obtain the exact utility targets and the pinch

location. Then, identify the pinch-causing stream the exact paper fibre allocation for the

regions above and below pinch to achieve the minimum paper fibre targets during

network design.

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Figure 3.1 shows, in order to fulfill D01 requirement, 285.93 tons of fresh fibre

per year and 114.07 tons of S01 (old magazine fibre) need to be fed into the system. For

D02, 254.89 tons of fresh fibre per year and 145.11 tons per year of S01 are needed to

fulfill the requirement. Excess fibre source will be considered as waste fibre, but for

high fibre grade, a total of 78.84 tons per year of waste fibre will be sent to low grade

for further usage. Kit et. al. (2011).

Figure 3.1: Example of Network Allocation Diagram (NAD)

Source: Kit et. al. (2011).